Florida Department of Environmental Protection

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is now accepting requests for water-quality grants from local governments, academic institutions, and nonprofits. More than $390 million is available to plan and put into practice projects that protect Florida’s water resources.

All 67 counties in Florida will take part and complete a vulnerability assessment and be eligible for inclusion in future iterations of the Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience Plan, which proposes funding for the highest ranked resilience and adaptation projects across the state.

The program is meant to reimburse homeowners for some of the costs they have spent fixing coastal erosion caused by the storms. The program has allocated $50 million for this.

Governor Ron DeSantis was at Lovers Key State Park in Lee County Tuesday to announce the award of nearly $20 million in grant funding for Florida communities to better assess the risks to critical infrastructure posed by flooding from sea level rise, storm surge, and rainfall events.

The proposed “Safe Waterways Act” by Calusa Waterkeeper would require the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) to issue health advisories and post and maintain warning notices at “public bathing places” where the water has been found to contain fecal bacteria.

Former Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary and former state Chief Resiliency officer Noah Valenstein has been named the first presidential fellow in water policy at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Water School. We’ll talk with Valenstein about his time in state government and his future plans for the Water School.

We are all connected by the environment we share. The Earth is our home. This is the space where we share the environmental stories that caught our attention this week in Florida and beyond.

We are all connected by the environment we share. The Earth is our home. This is the space where we share the environmental stories that caught our attention this week in Florida and beyond.

The federal council appointed to oversee the restoration of states affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill approved $302 million dollars for restoration projects Wednesday.Environmental Protection Agency Associate Deputy Administrator Doug Benevento said 73 million of those dollars have been allocated for projects along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection used ground penetrating radar on several plots of land in a predominantly black section of Fort Myers…